The
paintings of Soojung Jung transform the past, overturn cliches, defy
convention, and write new narratives into existence. Her works present
previously untold stories in which exceptional, unfamiliar, and estranged
beings become the protagonists of the story, turning our world upside down
while deconstructing it.
Creating
New Ecological Communities into Existence
Over
her career, artist Soojung Jung has drawn a wide diversity of women.
Referencing the work of Hieronymus Bosch, she created a new Garden of Eden
inhabited by frolicking female nymphs for her exhibition 《Sweet Siren》 (2018). She incorporated images
of transgressive characters from popular culture to create paintings of strong
female villains for her show 《The Star of Villains》 (2020). Finally, she drew portraits of women–animal hybrids while
borrowing from the tradition of tronie portraiture from the Netherlands for her
exhibition 《Falconry》 (2021).
At
her 2023 exhibition Voyage, she presented paintings of women
floating freely through an imaginary world. These women fly through the sky and
swim through the sea, surging ahead, free from any constraint or restriction.
Dressed in school uniforms, wedding dresses, and swimming suits, these women
appear to be plucked from everyday life; nevertheless, they effortlessly
traverse air and water in a world of freedom that is clearly different from our
reality.
These women—who play with the various microscopic elements that
inhabit this world, from mouthwatering fruits to strangely shaped spores—appear
as if they are the descendants of goddesses, fairies, and witches who have
grown up with us in our imaginations. Here, in this world, unfamiliar beings are
finally free from ostracism. A great variety of living beings, from small
microorganisms to strange, super-powerful beings, coalesce and interact.
Through her images of the intermingling of various beings, Soojung Jung writes
new narratives, creating an alternative, ideal ecosystem unlike our reality.
The
Impulse to Create Paintings that Overturn Convention
Soojung
Jung fluently fuses references from ancient and contemporary sources to tell
stories about women of the present. Her works reference long-established
conventions from art history, such as portraiture and Christian triptychs,
while reinterpreting common narrative motifs, such as the hero’s journey and
good versus evil, from a modern perspective. In the process, she effortlessly
folds in various commonplace aspects of femininity from contemporary popular
culture, such as wedding dresses, school uniforms, and high heels.
Such
a focus on these visual signs and symbols of femininity can run the risk of
objectifying women. That said, the women of Soojung Jung’s paintings turn
conventional images of women inside out, as if to mock and interrogate such
thinking. In her work, portraits of women that at first appear beautiful
ultimately come to feel unfamiliar and stranger. Likewise, nude women are
neither feminine nor sensual. While they resemble our conventional idea of
beauty, they simultaneously defy it, turning concepts of beauty upside down and
producing unexpected sensations. Her witches are neither completely good nor
evil; they are beings who have escaped from the binaries of our world.
However,
more important than Soojung Jung’s use of references from the past and present
to modernize the act of painting is the driving impulse that propels her work.
She draws what she wants to draw. Animated by an intense ambition, she draws
free and powerful women. As her ambition has grown, she has left behind reality
to create a world of fantasy to draw even freer, stronger, and more beautiful
women. Indeed, Soojung Jung has created her fantasy world out of a desire to
demolish the practical constraints that confine women. Her brush never
hesitates.
Soojung
Jung transcends what is possible even at the outermost edges of reality to
present an even more fantastical world. If reality takes a step forward, then
her paintings take two steps forward. It is my hope that she presents even
stronger and freer women in her future paintings, as this would be an indicator
that the world has improved slightly.
